2009-01-21-PB-min - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

PLANNING BOARD MINUTES MEETING OF JANUARY 21, 2009 A regular meeting of the Lexington Planning Board in the Selectmen’s Meeting Room, Town Office Building was called to order at 7:35 p.m. by Chairman Hornig with board members Zurlo, Manz, Galaitsis, and Canale present as well as planning staff members McCall-Taylor and Henry. ••••••••••••••••••••••••• SUBDIVISION ADMINISTRATION ••••••••••••••••••••••••• 341 Marrett Road, Balanced Housing Development Definitive Site Development Plan: in a letter to the Board, dated, January 16, 2009, the applicant, North Shore Construction and Development, Inc., requested a continuance and, if necessary, an extension of the statutory time limits. The Board opened the hearing, but took no testimony, immediately voting unanimously to continue the public hearing to 8:30 PM, February 11, 2009, in Cary Auditorium, Cary Hall, 1605 Massachusetts Avenue. This action does not require any extensions of the statutory time limits governing special permits. ••••••••••••••••••••••••• HARTWELL AVENUE AREA STUDY ••••••••••••••••••••••••• Discussion of Proposed Site Plan Review Bylaw: The Board discussed the proposed SPR bylaw and began by commenting on its stated purpose. Two members felt that it was verbose and should be more direct. The other Board members were agreeable to this point and the Board directed the staff to truncate the paragraph to a more basic statement. It was also decided that the language referencing residential and agricultural uses was not necessary given the absence of those land uses in the CM district. The Board then discussed how the SPR bylaw would work interact with the rest of the bylaw and its many permitting schemes, especially how it would interface with Special Permit requests. The conversation led to the conclusion that there should only be one permitting authority in these instances. When applications require only SPR, it was decided that there should be a tiered review system, with some projects requiring a staff-level, administrative review with all others going before the Board for a public meeting. The exact triggers for what constitutes site plan review (and the tiers) have yet to be formulated but it was agreed that less should be put into the bylaw, allowing the Board more flexibility to distinguish administrative review from full review when authoring regulations pursuant to the SPR bylaw. The Board’s conversation turned to the proposed length of review and procedural elements (e.g., time limits) contained in the proposed SPR bylaw. After good discussion, the Board found the time limits contained in the draft acceptable (60 days) but thought that the rules regarding notice/process needed